Bread Books

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DaveK on

So what's the ones you like? I just read Hamelman's book. It was good but a bit much into microbiology (I did like that since I'm an engineer) but not enough simplistic hands on thoughts . I got more from members here on this forum about steam then that book provided. I'm sure his recipes are good but maybe I should pester you guys more instead of buying books! :) But I just wondered what others are out there worth a read?

Click on that and you'll get a bunch of input.  

From a technical perspective, Hamelman's Bread is my favorite.  For some really good European breads, Leader's Local Breads can't be beat (if you can identify the errata before charging into a formula).  A sentimental favorite, The Complete Book of Breads by Clayton, has oodles of recipes, all in volume measurements.  I like Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice but find I'm not baking from it so much these days.

Paul

It's technical, that's for sure but all of the others that I have looked at in the bookstore and library are not much more than glorified picture books with recipes that run on for several pages.  Hamelman has all of the basic recipes that one will need and you can supplement those with what is posted here on TFL.  There are enough videos on the Internet to show you all of the various techniques that you need which negates the need for the picture bread books.  The only other bread cookbook that I own is "Inside the Jewish Bakery" by Ginsberg and Berg because of it's specialty nature.

Alan

On a side note, when I was 18, I lived on a Kibbutz in Israel for a year in 1980. Every Thursday night we had to work 5 hours in the bread bakery in preparations for the shabbat on Friday/Saturday. All I did was twist the bread into a form on a production line but this was the best bread ever and probably why I don't enjoy American breads.

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WendySusan on Tue, 07/07/2015 - 05:03

When I started on my bread baking journey, I took out every book I could find from the public library and read/scanned them for ease of information, technical data and recipes.  My kitchen counter had a pile for a couple of months but eventually I settled on two books that I wanted to spend my money.  

As I already had Bernard Clayton's book in my library:  Hamelman's Bread and Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast.  I found that combination provides me with enough reference data to supplement what I find here on the TFL.  Just my $.02.  

Wendy

I would reccomend Chad's first book "Tartine Bread" I learned quite a bit about some of the intangibles of bread baking from him. His book is more narrative than instructional but still very informative. Worth the money in my opinion.

I didn't realize there was book link but I did see the video link which was fun. And the Hammelman video link is just awesome! Thanks! I'll also look into the books suggested and of course will try Hammelman's recipes.

 

Thanks again!

I have only two bread books: The Bread Baker's Apprentice and FWSY.  But by and large I virtually never refer to them.  There are so many really good types of bread and their step by step and formulae to pick from on this website that all you have to do is have a hint of what you want and the possibilities are endless.  Usually with plenty of back and forth between OPs and commenters, hints, do and don't suggestions, etc.  TFL is the best bread book out there.

Bread because it has thousands of recipes for bread from all over the world yeast and SD alike but nothing even comes close to what you can learn on TFL and the willingness to help, critique, encourage and teach everything bread.  I couldn't agree more!

Bread because it has thousands of recipes for bread from all over the world yeast and SD alike but nothing even comes close to what you can learn on TFL and the willingness to help, critique, encourage and teach everything bread.  I couldn't agree more!